Thursday, November 3, 2016

His Night to I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy

A man deals with his lost love

Kids deal with their Halloween candy bring gone

His Night (Shakespearean sonnet)
It came with heavy gloom into his nightTo share perhaps to tear his world apartThis news which would weigh heavy on his heartHis love is gone forever from his sight-And all the world he knew came crashing downTo hear perhaps to fear the sound of painWhich beckoned unto heaven for refrainIn echoes which would make his feelings drown-Then something of a chill would still the airTo turn perhaps to churn his mind aroundA pounding from his heart which swallowed soundHas sent him flying back into his chair-Again from shadow glass was pushed awayThey wondered when this dream would likewise stray

What just happened in this Shakespearean sonnet? In this sonnet we have a guy lamenting the loss of his love. Each quatrain is filled with his pain. Then, in the last line, the word "They" appears. What is going on? If that wasn't enough, did we notice the rhymes within rhymes in the second lines of the quatrains?

Except for that brief dark period of confusion in that small Richmond district apartment, Arlene and I had a pretty unbelievable life. We lived a dream. Sure, we had our challenges like every other couples encounter. Add to these the day to day challenges we all have to deal with. But all of these were nothing, compared to the splendor, the richness, the wonder of our life. We lived in a palace in sky. We were that couple on the dance floor others watched. We were blessed with two remarkable children. We were community leaders. We got to revisit our wonder years. The list goes on and on and on... Arlene and I lived a remarkable story. Every once and again an occasion would find these dreamers wondering how long all this would last. For a brief moment we drifted through a world of "this isn't happening at all". It was like we needed to exhale. (It was also a wonderful prelude to some smooching.)

This brings us to the idea of balance. I admit, I was brainwashed into a world of positive thinking. Live in the positive. In our world negatives are welcome challenges: Opportunities for improvement to become better. There is another school of thinking that believe positive and negative are opposite parts of the same thing. When perfect balance is reached, the thing can no longer be sensed. Perfect peace. Pretty far out there. Let's apply these concepts to us. We are all special. We are all people (part of the same thing). We can all learn from each other. Learn to improve. Learn and accept that we are all unique. Accept that our uniqueness joined together makes us whole. And as we become whole we reach perfect peace. Pretty far out there. But not so far that we can't Enjoy.

Some music to go with the sonnet: Max Richter "When She Went Away"

It's hard to find balance when all the candy is gone

Trick or treating, or “guising” began in the Middle-Ages. Children and sometimes poor adults would dress up in the costumes and go around door to door during Hallowmas begging for food or money in exchange for songs and prayers. This gave way to candy. Another Halloween tradition is Jimmy Kimmel getting parents to tell their kids that they ate all their trick or treat candy.

Enjoy as parents torture their kids. "YouTube Challenge - I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy 2016"

In the cycle of life some days there is only a tissue paper between positive and negative. Both are there. And we need the dark to appreciate the light, just as we need the light to illuminate the dark.

You are a philosopher I like that and I agree that it is about balance. How you reach balance? I think we need suffering to learn. We learn to empathise to understand others, which in return will bring acceptance, closeness and happiness.